Civil War, Confederacy has Pasadena connections

PASADENA - While the Civil War was waged on the opposite side of the country, it's local connections to the Southern California and Pasadena run deep, according to historians.

California was split over whether to support the pro-slavery Confederacy or the Union. Confederate sympathizers were abundant in Southern California and in Pasadena.

"Don Benito Wilson and his partner, Dr. John Griffin, owned much of the area we know today as Pasadena," said Nick Smith, a Pasadena Public Library employee and local historian. "Griffin's sister, who at one point lived in Eaton Canyon, was married to Gen. Albert Johnston. He fought for the Confederacy."

Pasadena rebel connections also include the man who at one time owned the Raymond Hill area of South Pasadena, which in the 1800s was part of Pasadena.

John Lancaster Brent, who represented property owners in land grant cases, took possession of Raymond Hill in exchange for his legal services. When the Civil War broke out, Brent jumped into action.

"He joined the Confederacy," Smith said.

Adam Goodheart, author of "1861: The Civil War Awakening," has studied the role California played in both the Civil War and the debate over slavery. His research points to a state as much divided as the country was during the time leading up to the war.

"It wasn't entirely clear whether California was a free or slave state," Goodheart said "While it was admitted as a free state, the rights of black people in California were more circumscribed than other states in the union."

Gold prospectors illegally smuggled in black slaves to work in the gold mines, a point not lost on Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

During a speech, Davis said California's climate and the labor intensive work of extracting gold was better suited for black men than whites, Goodheart said.

Davis words resonated with the pro-slavery element in Southern California, which was settled mostly by Southern Democrats. Northern California on the other hand was mostly settled by Northeast and Midwest Union supporters, Goodheart said.

However, the anti-union sentiment across the state was potent enough that a group of Confederate sympathizers plotted to overtake Alcatraz, at the time a Union munitions depot, Goodheart said.

"Albert Johnston, a Southerner, a Union officer at the time of the plot and someone the Confederates thought would support the plot, vowed not to allow Alcatraz to fall," Goodheart said.

The pro-South group canceled it plans to take Alcatraz.

But Johnston would eventually realign his loyalty and join a group of Los Angeles men who joined the Confederacy.

"In early 1861, a group of men in Los Angeles crossed the desert to get back to the East and enlist in the Confederate service," Goodheart said. "Most of the men were Army officers stationed in California."

Johnston was killed at the Battle of Shiloh.

The Civil war ended in 1865, but the conflict's connections to Pasadena didn't cease, Smith said.

"In time, some Confederate soldiers opened stores in Old Pasadena," Smith said. "Most of the early politicians in Pasadena were Civil War veterans."

George Stoneman came to live in Pasadena and eventually rose through the political ranks to become governor of California, Smith said.

Henry Markham, another Pasadena resident and California governor, also lived in Pasadena after serving the Union in the Civil War.

Pasadena also held large parades for the Union soldiers, including a procession down Colorado Boulevard in 1926.

"The Tournament of Roses arranged to drop roses at the feet of the veterans," Smith said.

Today, many of these Civil War veterans are interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena.